You write something perfectly insightful yet witty, diligently research the best hashtags, tag that perfect influencer for your business, hit “Tweet,” and then pat yourself on the back for managing to do it all in 140 characters. But what happens next?

Welcome to the world of Twitter analytics. Through Twitter analytics you can learn everything from how well a specific tweet performs to your audience’s age and income ranges. Even if your eyes usually gloss over when it comes to numbers, analytics are important. You’ll be able to learn what does and doesn’t work for your specific audience so you can tweak your posts in the future and slowly build your community.

When you open Twitter.com and log in, click on the profile and settings button in the upper righthand corner. Select “Analytics” and get ready to dive in!

The first stop on our analytics journey is your Account Home. If you’ve never used Analytics before or only have a few minutes to spare, your dashboard gives you a quick look at your number of tweets, tweet impressions, profile visits, mentions, and followers over the past 28 days. It also shows how much these numbers have changed compared to the last 28 day period. Keep these percentages in mind, so you can track them increasing or learn why they may be decreasing.

Tweets: The number of times you’ve posted in the last month.

Tweet impressions: The number of people who saw your tweets. Due to factors such as timing, the number of accounts your followers follow, Twitter’s algorithm, etc. not every tweet gets seen by every follower. Boost your impressions by getting retweeted by influential followers and using hashtags.

Profile visits: This means exactly what it sounds like: how many times people view your profile. This is more important than you may think! Ideally real users are clicking to check out your business and hopefully click on your website. Track these visits month over month and make sure that number stays up.

Mentions: How many times people have tagged you (using “@” and your Twitter handle) in their tweets. The more you’re tagged, the more likely that you’ll get engagement with new users.

Followers: This is how many people have realized how great your tweets are and have decided to follow you!

As you scroll down, you’ll see your numbers broken out by month. It’s like your highlight reel; while they don’t tell the whole story (we’ll get to that!), they show:

Top tweet: This tweet gets a gold star. It’s what received the most impressions and engagement (people RTing, liking, etc.). Simultaneously congratulate yourself and learn from these tweets; they’re a great indicator of what your audience is responding to!

Top media tweet: This tweet is your best performing tweet that included media (image, gif, or video). You’ll be able to tell if that one tweet about bringing your cat to work really was your audience’s favorite.

Top mention: Who has been talking about you this month? Hopefully someone cool.

Top follower: Top followers are usually awesome at Twitter. This is your “Follower of the Month” who has the biggest following. If they’re important to you, keep tagging and making that connection.

Start to get into the habit of checking these metrics regularly; make it a habit to view your analytics at least every two weeks to see how you’re measuring up. And bonus points to you if you write this numbers down so you can keep track over time. Most of the free analytics you’ll find only go back to the last 90 days, so if you want to see how well you do every six months or every year, keep a record!

If you missed it the first time, read this refresher on how to maximize your tweets and we’ll catch you here next week to take a deeper dive into Twitter Analytics!